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Daniel Wyke part 9

Dreams come in many forms. Depending on the day you had, or the food you’ve eaten, something manifests in your subconscious the moment you go to sleep. The purpose of a dream is not completely understood, but many people have been trying to rationalize why they exist for many years.

What most people don’t understand though, is the off-chance that the subconscious is not really dreaming, but escaping the known reality to another plane of existence. A different reality, space or time, that is usually achieved by coma patients or those with an extreme amount of over-exhaustion, anxiety or a trigger effect from trauma.

Most like to believe that when these moments happen, they are actually a Deus Ex Machina filled with the answers they need. They wake up changing their behavior, believing that they have to fulfill a sudden prophecy. What they experience becomes so real, that the moment they wake up, it’s all they want to believe.

Daniel sat in the study of his uncle’s estate. The clear give away is it wasn’t really his estate due the fact that everything was coloured in an off-white. The fireplace in the front of the room was at least 2.5 times larger than it usually is, and between him and the fireplace was a woman that looked exactly like Agatha Park.

At least he thought it was her. The defining characteristic that makes it ‘not her’ is all of those facial features staring him down. Thin brownish eyebrows, blue glassy eyes, decently sized nose and a small mouth. To him, it was exactly the kind of face he’s never seen before. Something you could easily add to somebody that doesn’t have one.

At first, many things were going on in his mind. The possibility that he might be dead? Well the concept of an all white room does make people believe such a thing. The popular belief being that an all white area seems to be associated with heaven. But most of the time it’s because they don’t actually remember what the room looks like.

Second, the possibility that it’s actually hell. From Daniel’s perspective, the woman before him is standing perfectly center in-front of the ridiculously large, roaring fireplace. Oddly enough, since the last thing he remembers is swimming up to the surface of an open sea, it’s his subconscious telling him that he’s cold, and is trying it’s best to warm him up.

The third thought was the most intriguing to him though, as demonstrated by the word that immediately came out of his mouth.

“ok, um… thank you.” Daniel stood up and walked towards the door. The hallway before him was shrouded in darkness, except for a torch propped up on the wall beside him. He lifted the torch up from his holster and proceeded down the dark hall.

It was reminiscent of the cave from the bottom of harbourstone. The stone features that the light bounced off of, and the complete darkness that surrounded everything illuminated. He moved forward without any hesitation as if the dream was playing out for him. The whistling of wind toyed with his eardrums enticing him to keep moving forward.

As he walked far enough from the study, so far that he could not see it, the wind changed it’s tone. From within the playful whistling was a gushing breeze that tried to push him over. As he pressed up against the wall to stay on his feet, the torch was knocked out of his hand and went out as it hit the ground.

The strong wind did not want to cease, but he knew he had to continue forward. Though he could not see in-front of himself, the feeling that this was all part of the dream was enough for him to continue forward.

Slowly he pushed himself against the wind, closing his jacket tighter to fight the freezing air. Each step forward felt heavier than the next, as fighting the wind felt increasingly like a chore. resisting the urge to move forward anymore, he let the wind take him down.

As he fell backwards there was no loud thud to catch his fall, but rather a Splash. Daniel sunk deep into a vast ocean of water, and he didn’t want to fight it. A calm yet numb feeling took him over, and he didn’t fight it.

As he sank further down, a faint light below pulled him closer serving as a beacon. The feeling of drowning in an ocean simply went away as he floated to the source of light. There he stood in front of the beacon, as a figure looking not unlike his uncle appeared before him.

“Sit down, child.” Spoke the man. “Do you know what this place is?”

Daniel sat in the Regal chair that formed suddenly behind him as he looked around, “This is the cave, is it?”

“Yes,” replied the man, “But do you know what this place is.”

Daniel gave it a moment of thought before speaking up, “Well, to be honest it’s a bit hard to tell when you can’t really see anything.”

“There are things about this cave that hold more of an answer than I could ever give you.” Spoke the figure bluntly. It seemed to have struck a chord with Daniel, and he wanted to fight back sadness. Seeing his uncle in-front of him, brought out so many questions he wanted to ask. Daniel looked down, and fiddled with his hands. The apparition became uncomfortable.

“Look,” it said, “I’m not being cheeky or anything, I literally cannot give you any answers because I’m dead.”

“For you, this is nothing more than a dream Daniel. I can only help you with what you already know.”

“What is it, that I already know about the cave?”

The figure stood, “What you know, is what the whole town knows. The cave is the beginning of this towns story. Do you remember your youth, and the stories I’ve told about the town’s founder?”

“Yes.”

“Then you know he was drawn to the cave, much like those pirates that were searching for something as well.” The figure pulled a stick from the ground and used the beacon to light it, “I may be lost at sea, boy. But I never had the answers you seek. To know what happened, you have to go back to the cave.”

The figure started to walk away, with the torch in hand. Daniel stood up, and proceeded to follow. “How will I know what I’m looking for, when I get there? It’s completely dark! It’s vast!”

“Any sensible man already has the answer to that Daniel,” The figure stopped to face him, “ All you have to do is light the right way.”

The torch in the figures hand grew in-front of Daniel, blinding his eyes. But as the bright light lost Daniel his focus, it just as quickly adjusted. There we was, laid on top of the driftwood that carried him to a shore.

Coming to his senses, he coughed what little ocean water was in his lungs, and he gasped for air. The preconceived notion he had before about his death turned out to be untrue, and he breathed airs of relief.

Daniel pushed himself onto his back, and looked up into the sky, recalling the dream that just happened. He knew that there was no chance of getting his uncle back, who was now nestled into the bottom of the ocean, and if what the figure was telling him to be true, then the answer to everything had to be back at the cave.

But what exactly was the answer he was looking for? And if was going to get back to the cave, he had to at least find out where it was he came to. Daniel sat up to survey the area. As far as he could see was a vast ocean one side, and an equally large forest on the other. No other signs of life for what looked like miles.

Having enough of his fill of the ocean for a lifetime, he knew his best bet was to see what he could find in the forest…

Inconveniently at the same time, he also knew that if he was going to continue any further he would have to find some time for food and rest.